CH1 Before the Beginning
(I’m going to start before the beginning. Back in Merry old England, though it wasn’t so merry in those times. Beheading and persecutions for not agreeing with the current Ruler were common. Don’t have the same religious beliefs as the King? Off with you’re head I say. Problem is with every new King or Queen you were apt to have a different form of Christianity forced upon you. They flip flopped back and forth from Protestant to Catholic. Introducing the Separatists. We call them pilgrims but they didn’t. Here’s an excerpt from a book about the founding of the New World written by an historian who attends the second Church established in the New World, The First Congregational Church, of Marshfield, MA. It’s still active to this day although the first one in Plymouth is not.)
We will not detail the events that brought Henry VIII to separate the church in England from the Roman Catholic Church. But we do know that during his reign and in succeeding years persecution and execution was visited on both the Catholic and the Protestant Churches, and their devout followers, depending upon who was on the throne and which church was currently in favor. Henry’s daughter, Queen Elizabeth I, in an attempt to satisfy both sides to some extent, established the official Church of England, or Anglican Church. But for many Protestants, the Anglican Church was still too close to Catholicism. These people, called generally the Puritans (though there were many different groups and no central leadership at this time), wanted to “purify” the Church of England by scrapping the Prayer Book in favor of the Bible, simplifying the ritual, and observing the Sabbath strictly. They also wanted to change the hierarchy of church governance, giving more power to the local congregations, but keeping a central church government. Under the broader term “Puritans,” there was a more radical group known as the Congregationalists, who wanted completely self-governing churches, each church formed by a solemn covenant entered into by the “visible saints” (those who confessed their faith and swore to the covenant.) The Congregationalists let each congregation choose its own pastor and officers, but both the Puritans and the Congregationalists still professed membership in the Anglican Church. Within the Congregationalists was an even smaller and more radical group known as the Separatists who wanted to make a clean break with the Anglican Church and form a new and separate church. Obviously, in a time when to take a religious stand was also to take a political position, the Separatists were unacceptable, almost to the point of treason, since the King or Queen was the head of the Anglican Church. It is interesting that these people were not all in the same place, but were found all across England, apparently having come to the same conclusions from the teachings of pastors coming out of colleges, particularly Emmanuel College, Cambridge, where the faculty taught the Separatist views. Small groups found warrant for these “gathered churches” in the book of Matthew (1)
(Kind of an insight to the original design of our Government)
(1)8:20, “for where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them”
For a discussion of these roots, see Cutler, Ralph H., Jr. “Sublights on the Puritans and Pilgrims,” Mayflower Quarterly, Nov. 1984, pp.161-169.
I persuade myself, never people upon earth lived more lovingly, and parted more sweetly than we, the Church at Leyden, did. Not rashly, in a distracted humor; but, upon joint and serious deliberation, often seeking the mind of God, by fasting and prayer: whose gracious presence we not only found with us; but his blessing upon us from that time to this instant: to the indignation of our adversaries, the admiration of strangers, and the exceeding consolation of ourselves
Edward Winslow
One of these churches was gathered by covenant in the village of Scrooby in 1606. They met on Sundays in the home of the postmaster, William Brewster, for Bible study and prayer, led by the pastor, John Robinson. King James, who took the throne in 1603 upon the death of Queen Elizabeth I, and whose name is now revered with the King James Bible(2), said of the dissidents, “I will make them conform, or I will harry them out of the land!” Therefore, after many trials, both literal and figurative, the little band removed to Holland, and eventually to the town of Leiden. There they found relative religious freedom. However, some found it hard to make a living, they were concerned that their children were losing the English language and customs, and they feared that if Spain captured Holland the inquisition might be visited upon them. The little group was able to find financing from “merchant adventurers” – we would call them venture capitalists today – to back a colony in the New World. With the money, they arranged for two ships to take them across the ocean. But after leaving England and enduring the miseries of two weeks, the smaller ship, the Speedwell,was close to sinking, and they had to turn back. When they finally set sail again, on the Mayflower, some people had to be left behind, though some of them eventually came to Plymouth on later vessels. Aboard ship were 102 passengers, but only fifty-one of them were Separatists. They called themselves “Saints.” The other half were “Strangers,” – hired hands, indentured servants, and others who came for their own reasons. None of them called themselves “Pilgrims,” a term found in Bradford’s History, “They knew they were pilgrims,” but not popularized until almost two hundred years later. They knew they were travelers for a religious cause, but neither they nor anyone else referred to them that way.
(2 )It should be noted that the Separatists, in total opposition to King James, did not accept the King James Version of the Bible. They used the Geneva Bible, published in Switzerland.
